


red and white flowers

by churchish



Category: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Death, Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, Grief/Mourning, Immortal Severance Ending (Sekiro), Introspection, hi i made myself cry with this, i have an obsession with characters that literally Cannot process their emotions, i plan on just writing oneshots every once in awhile and posting them here, okay maybe more than slightly but, sekiro gave me a lot to think about, slightly OOC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:13:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28620855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/churchish/pseuds/churchish
Summary: He left Kusabimaru at the head of the mound of dirt. A small, spinning pinwheel joined soon after - for what it was worth, Kotaro was right.Every once in a while he would add another red and white flower, and stay long enough to watch it spin.
Relationships: Kuro | The Divine Heir & Sekiro | Wolf
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	red and white flowers

Everyone was scripted to die. 

The thought, no matter how exceptional the circumstance, was no more revelatory than a passing comment about the weather. 

Death was no foreign concept to him - he had witnessed, caused, and experienced enough to know the indifference it had for every living thing.

Of course, as with every rule, there were exceptions to that binding contract; outliers that disrupted the balance just as well as they planted false hopes in those blinded enough by avarice to seek out such powers for their own personal use.

He knew he had done what he had been asked to do - and whatever was asked of him by his lord took utmost priority - but the yawning maw in his chest sealed none.

That infallible ache in his core did not dissipate.

Wolf found it particularly cruel that the one thing men were willing to rip themselves apart for - the one thing they were willing to burn the very ground they prowled upon for - was something his lord had wanted so badly to rid himself and Ashina of. 

Everyone was scripted to die. 

_~~Except Kuro~~_. Even Kuro.

 _ ~~Except Wolf~~_. Even Wolf.

He considered his own fate, and the resurrections that had kept him from it. The sweet, aromatic scent of sakura pervaded his nose upon the thought - a sword sheathed warmly in his stomach, an arrow sticking true through his throat, a well-placed bullet in his skull; all the pain the world could muster before abrupt numbness tapered the sensations into nothingness. 

The disorientation of true death, of waking beside one of the Sculptor's idols, was unkind in every measurable way.

His mistakes hammered him into a sharper, more precise tool over time, and Wolf was able to maintain the balance; there was no more rot - he had fallen into the rhythm of taking lives to replenish any he had spent, and, should it have ever been necessary, he had more Dragon’s blood droplets than he knew what to do with.

But the Wolf was no fool - he knew, now with immortality severed, that death was an object worth its weight. 

It was lighter than he had anticipated it to be.

He had always thought that the only companion to be beholden to his actual last breaths would be a battlefield. It was expected of his station; to die for a purpose, alone, and forgotten. It did not bother him. 

And he had known, in lieu of being surrounded by next of kin, he would be surrounded by the silent, frigid flakes, and the drifting ash that was indistinguishable from the snow. 

But now, he was not sure. 

What was left to fight for?

What was _worth_ dying for? 

They were borderline heretical, the thoughts - Wolf could not recall a time he did not have a weapon in his hand. Could not remember a time he did not fight for something.

For someone.

The maelstrom of emotions pushing through him gnawed holes into his bones and crawled to the marrow.

The pain was worse than dying. 

He preferred the familiar, searing pressure of a katana nestled to the hilt in his guts. _This_ pain was invisible but ever more vicious. 

Wolf had experienced loss in his life, some small and some large, but none could hold a candle to the fresh hole that had been ripped in his soul when he sunk the blade into his lord’s chest.

Nothing could compare to the agony of listening to his lord’s heart stop moving.

He could not help the small whine that escaped the back of his throat upon looking down at Kuro’s lifeless body. 

He did not feel such sorrow for Lady Butterfly. He did not feel such remorse for his Father.

It was that sorrow, and the accompanying remorse, that willed him away from the silvergrass field; an indeterminable amount of time passed before he could stomach the idea of a burial.

Wolf felt guilty about leaving him there. 

Kuro looked the same, but, then again, Wolf did not know what he had expected.

He left Kusabimaru at the head of the mound of dirt. A small, spinning pinwheel joined soon after - for what it was worth, Kotaro was right.

Every once in a while he would add another red and white flower, and stay long enough to watch it spin.

It smelled of sakura every time he paid his young lord a visit, and it was heavier than the sky on its dreariest day.

The pain began to ebb, its density becoming a bearable thing. With each time he knelt beside the grave, he found he could breathe better - the air was no longer forced out of his lungs in favor of creating room for his grief; it was manageable, but his loss was not any less.

He knew - everyone was scripted to die. 

And the thought, no matter how exceptional the circumstance, was no more revelatory than a comment about the weather.

**Author's Note:**

> so, i've made it all the way to isshin. i've yet to fight him because i don't want the game to end. i chose the purification ending as that seemed to be the best one (in my opinion). immortal severance ending actually makes me want to cry so i decided to write something sad :)
> 
> i'll be in my room if you need me


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